Straight for the kill, p.23
Straight for the Kill, page 23
“It’s very likely the killer or killers have access to it because they’re in the medical field, whether in a hospital or a pharmacy,” Olivia said. “Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s still easily gained illegally.”
Which was exactly how Kerri and Allegra got access to theirs. Andrea didn’t elaborate where the girls were getting the drugs or the patches—which screamed medical field, because the patches were used on patients with serious to terminal illnesses.
Elizabeth made a choked sound. Lila glanced at her, pulling the wheel in the same direction and nearly causing an accident.
“What?”
The sheriff shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Oh, don’t give me that nothing crap. It’s something or you wouldn’t have had a choking attack.”
“It’s just not possible. She wouldn’t do that. Couldn’t.”
“She who?” Olivia pressed.
Ahead, Lila made out the flashing lights of the bus and Fontaine’s Charger.
“You’ve got two seconds to tell us what you’re talking about,” she said, slowing the SUV.
“Seraphina Russell.” Elizabeth blew out a breath. “She’s a pharmacist.”
“Which would give her full access to a whole slew of drugs.” Lila pulled the Interceptor behind Fontaine’s car, parked, and left the engine running. “And she’d have motive for going after the Jones brothers if they had a hand in her sister’s death.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “They weren’t old enough. Duane’s a year younger than Marnie and Sera, and Dale is three years younger. The only thing connecting them to any of this was Andrea’s abduction. Why would Sera go after them for Andrea? She was never friends with Erin or Rick.”
“What about Hillary?” Lila asked.
“That makes even less sense.”
Olivia huffed. “You need to stop thinking about how this should connect and start reconsidering everything you’ve ever known about these people. Especially your sister.”
Lila spotted Fontaine coming their way, and she held up her hand. He came to a stop and scowled at her. Elizabeth’s features morphed between confusion to anger and finally resignation.
“The only way we’re going to get straight answers is to ask Ben.” Lila reached over the console and took her phone from Elizabeth. “I’m going to keep trying Kyle.”
“Don’t bother. We’re in a dead zone out here,” Elizabeth said and pushed out of the SUV.
Lila checked her cell service and groaned. Sheriff was right. No Gs. No bars. “I really hate parts of this county,” she grumbled as she turned off the engine.
“Radios,” Elizabeth said as she headed for Fontaine.
Bentley tore after her owner while Lila and Olivia hung back.
“This is already bad on so many levels,” Olivia said in a low voice. “Top among them is the fact she’s rushing around only days after surgery.”
“You aren’t going to be able to sideline her. She’s got the bit in her mouth and she’s running hell-bent for leather.”
Irony being what it was in this new life of hers in the rural areas of Iowa, Lila was thrown for a loop when they passed the ambulance and saw the horse trailer and truck.
“Isn’t that interesting,” Olivia muttered.
“Able to get back there unless we ride,” Fontaine was telling Elizabeth.
“Wait, what?” Lila demanded. “Ride horses? Where?”
“You ain’t … got a … choice,” a voice rasped behind Fontaine.
Fontaine stepped aside to reveal Fitzgerald propped up on a stretcher. Horror slammed into Lila. She and Olivia swarmed the gurney.
Fitzgerald’s swollen face was covered in bruises, gashes along one eye and his bottom lip split wide open. Cuts crisscrossed his shirtless torso. An air cast encased his left leg.
“My God, Ben,” Lila sputtered. “Who did this?”
He tried to swallow, but the effort must have been painful. “I don’t know.” He panted. “Left me … for … dead.”
Olivia gently took Fitzgerald’s wrist and examined it. “Were you tied up?”
“No.” He lifted to point at his face. “Hit me … back of head. Put a hood … over … Beat me.” His hand flopped on his chest. “Broke leg.” He rested his head against the pillow.
Lila grimaced. “How the hell did you get out here?”
“He dragged himself to the road,” Fontaine finished. “Had Young and I not come along on a hunch, God knows what would have happened.”
The tap of steel horseshoes against the gravel made Lila turn. Young, her bandaged hand tucked to her chest, rode up on a dark gray horse. Wearing her uniform and a black ball cap, her long, dark hair a plait tossed over her shoulder, she looked comfortable astride the horse.
“Sheriff, if we’re going in, we need to go now before we lose daylight,” she said.
“Should she be doing that?” Lila asked, looking at Olivia.
“She,” Young snapped, “has ridden with far worse damage to her than a cut hand.”
“Deputy Young is right. We need to go. Now,” Elizabeth said. “Rafe, we’ve brought an extra shotgun and rifle. Are there scabbards on the saddles?”
“Yes. I’ll grab the guns. Young has already loaded up my extras from the car.”
Lila turned to the sheriff. “You do know I’ve never ridden.”
“You’ll be fine. It’s like riding a bike.”
“Except it has a mind of its own and will buck you off,” Young added, turning her horse to face the trailer.
“Corey, we don’t need any fearmongering,” Elizabeth chided as she walked past the horseback deputy.
“You really shouldn’t be riding, Ellie,” Olivia called after her and gave chase.
Stiff as a board, Lila stayed rooted in place next to Fitzgerald’s stretcher. What the hell was she doing? She’d never been on the back of a horse in her entire life. Why couldn’t they use ATVs? Now that was something she could handle.
“Why aren’t we using the four-wheelers?” she asked Fontaine as he passed with the weapons.
He paused and glanced at her. “Because the underbrush is bad in there. You can’t see a damn thing unless you’re on the back of a horse.”
“We can’t stay on the road?”
“For three quarters of a mile, maybe. After that it’s gone. It’s a dirt road, Dayne, which means everything grew back in place.” He continued forward to the trailer. “You’ll be fine.”
It was a dirt road, in a heavily wooded timber, with a history of haunts and spooks, and she was a woman who had barely survived being hunted down like prey by a twisted psychopath in a similar setting. Yeah, this had all the hallmarks of a great idea. Not!
“What’s back there?” she asked Fontaine.
A hand fell on her wrist. Fitzgerald’s eyes, what little of them she could see through his swollen lids, burned.
He tugged her closer to him. “They have Kyle and Marnie.”
Lila’s heart flew into her throat. Pressing against the gurney’s steel braces to get closer to him, she grappled to take his hand from her wrist and gripped his. “How?”
“Freya.” He tried to shake his head but winced instead and sank against the upright stretcher.
“Deputy, we really should get him to the hospital,” one of the medics said.
Lila laid Fitzgerald’s hand on the white-sheeted pad. “Go.” She stepped out of the way for the two medics to move the stretcher. “Send another bus or two this way,” she told them.
Just in case I fall off a horse and crack my head open.
The one who took lead gripped the brim of his ball cap in acknowledgement. When they had wheeled the gurney to the back of the ambulance, Lila headed for the horse trailer.
They, those sons of bitching they had Kyle and Marnie. Who else did they have? How did Freya fit into this? How did Fitzgerald know they had those two but not know who it was who beat him?
Lila stumbled up to the left side of the trailer to find four saddled horses and the owner speaking with Fontaine. She leaned into the huge steel trailer and hugged her body. Everything about this whole damn case—the homicides, the prominent men using young women for sex, and the secrets that flew like flies everywhere—was a nightmare. She’d thought the serial killer case she’d worked in Chicago, provoking the man to attack her not once but twice, had been a convoluted mess.
This whole thing was worse.
A year ago, Kyle had been hurt when he came between her and the killer who’d stalked her. Now he was in the clutches of a faceless assailant who had already killed two men, severely injured another, and was working up to something big.
Lila pushed off the trailer. Screw it! No way was she going to allow a bit of psychological warfare on her part get between her and doing her job. No way in hell would she allow her fears to prevent her from protecting someone she loved. Yes, she did love Kyle, in a weird, complicated way.
Elizabeth parted from the horse she’d chosen to ride and approached Lila. “I know it’s bad, but we need all hands on deck. These horses are the best and the safest. You’ll be fine.”
“Fitzgerald told me they have Kyle.” She worked saliva into her mouth then swallowed. “And Marnie.”
The blood drained from Elizabeth’s face. Lila’s hands shot out and grasped her boss’s arms before she buckled.
“Who the hell are they?” Elizabeth ground out.
“I don’t know, but they sure as hell are going to get what’s coming to them.”
Chapter Thirty
Wailing Lady Lane spread before them like a path in a horror movie. A path only the crazy, addle-brained slasher-flick fan would dare to run down, believing they could outrun the chainsaw-wielding killer. Elizabeth adjusted her seat in the saddle, gritting her teeth against the twinges coming from her healing abdomen. Riding would take different, unused muscles, and she’d regret every minute of being on the back of a horse, but right now she didn’t care. Somewhere, deep in the middle of this untamed land was her sister and one of her deputies. Nothing was stopping her from finding Marnie.
Olivia had tried to put up an argument to come with them, but Lila’s insistence that this required people with proper weapons training ended the argument. Olivia promised to stay put with the owner of the horses, waiting for Meyer and the extra ambulances Lila had ordered to show up. Though she promised to stay, it didn’t mean it stopped the ME from pacing the length of the truck and horse trailer.
A series of sharp barks tugged on Elizabeth’s heart. She’d had to shut Bentley inside the Interceptor to keep her from following them. The collie was frantic. A part of Elizabeth knew the dog sensed danger. But there was no way she’d risk her dog’s life, whether it be at human hands or the wild animals willing to prey on the domestic one.
Facing forward, Elizabeth put her friend and her pet out of her mind. They needed to pick up the pace. The shadows were growing fast in the east. Once the sun was down, they would be at the mercy of whoever waited for them.
“Ellie.” Rafe rode to her right, sitting tall in the saddle, looking the part of a Wild West sheriff. He and Joel had grown up riding horses, even did a stint during high school on the rodeo circuit as team ropers. “We need to book.”
“I know.” She glanced over at Lila, riding between her and Young. “Lila, sit forward in the saddle, don’t squeeze your legs, and hold onto the reins.”
The woman’s panicked eyes flicked her way. “Why?”
Behind her head, Elizabeth caught Young’s wide grin. She half-expected the woman to let out a war whoop when they moved into a canter.
“Because we’re gonna run,” Young said.
“Oh my God, seriously?” The trepidation in Lila’s voice did a lot to mask the fear for her lover that she had done a pitiful job of hiding.
Not that Elizabeth had any room to speak when she was scared out of her damn mind for her sister.
“Burning daylight,” Rafe said and with a smooch, he drove his dark bay into a lope.
Elizabeth took two seconds to admire the man’s backside as he rode. That was enough.
Young clicked her horse into gear. Both riders shot ahead. Elizabeth’s sorrel quivered, wanting to run.
“Lila, just breathe. The horse will do all the work.” And with that bit of wisdom, Elizabeth gave her mare her head and took off.
In her wake, Lila let out a caustic curse and then shrieked. If they weren’t heading into a hellish landscape, Elizabeth would find humor in this. She held the mare back until Lila’s gelding caught up. Like every inexperienced rider before her, Lila hunched over the saddle horn, holding on to it and the reins for dear life.
“Sit up,” Elizabeth ordered.
“To hell with that. I’m falling off.”
“He’s got the smoothest lope out of all of these horses. Sit up.”
Lila managed to do as she was ordered. The farther they rode, the more confident she grew until she wasn’t clinging to the saddle horn.
Three quarters of the way down the lane the dirt turned to weed-infested grass. They slowed the horses to a trot. A little over a mile in, they had to return the horses to a walk as the weeds reached the horses’ bellies.
“Where did Fitzgerald say he was ambushed and left?” Lila asked as she navigated her horse through the chest-high underbrush.
“He didn’t,” Young answered. “He was so disorientated. We couldn’t find where he dragged himself from either.”
“Where are all their vehicles?” Elizabeth asked. “Each of them would have driven out here, and I don’t see the cars.”
“We couldn’t find those either,” Young said.
“Maybe our infamous they hid the vehicles somewhere back here,” Lila suggested.
“It’s possible,” Elizabeth said. “But we should see signs of that.”
Rafe fell back to her side. He kept a constant sweep of their progress.
“How close are we to the old farmstead?” Elizabeth asked in a low voice.
“First place is less than a mile up. Trees and bushes have taken over the yard and fields.” He reined his horse closer to hers. “I haven’t seen signs of anyone having come this way. I don’t think our suspects took the vehicles elsewhere.”
“Wasn’t there another road on the far eastern edge of the property lines?”
“Going north and south, yeah. Hunters still use it to get back into the fields. It’s possible whoever is back here used that way to get in. Could be hiding out at the second homestead.”
“That’s almost a mile from the first place.” Elizabeth peered up at the darkening sky. “Night comes too fast this time of year.”
“Do you smell that?” Young asked, her chin tilted up.
Sniffing the air, Elizabeth stiffened. Wood smoke. Faint.
“Where’s it coming from?” Lila asked, doing her own sniffing.
“The wind is dispersing it,” Rafe said. “It could be coming from anywhere at this point.”
Far ahead, Elizabeth could just make out the pointed top of a structure. “Rafe, look.”
“What the hell?” He checked his watch, a gift from his brother with a few extra features besides telling time that the Delta Force operators typically used when in the field. He twisted around in his saddle to look back. “We haven’t gone far enough to be at the first farmstead.”
“Are you sure?” Elizabeth reined her horse around to face their path they’d just taken. “We veered off the road a long while back.”
“The trees aren’t thick enough.” He swung his horse south. “What used to be the road should be a hundred yards over.”
She examined the area. The landscape was densely populated with small trees, bushes, grass, and weeds. It was impossible to tell how far they’d come and how far they’d gotten from the lane.
“Rafe, I think we’re farther along than we realize.”
“Shit,” he spat.
“Uh, Sheriff.”
Elizabeth wheeled her mare about.
Lila pointed at a gap in the shadowed underbrush. “I see light.”
After ordering everyone to dismount and hobble the horses, Elizabeth and Rafe gathered with Young and Lila. Shadows were lengthening with each passing minute.
“I don’t like this,” Lila muttered.
“No one does.” Elizabeth stared at the small patch of red light coming through the dying foliage. “It’s too steady to be firelight.”
“I can’t tell if it’s a house or a barn.” Rafe parted the bushes, shining his flashlight into the hole. “A lot of crap to get tangled up in going this way.”
“Get the rifles and shotguns,” she told Young and Lila. She pointed to their left. “We’ll have to go around. If someone is in the structure, they had to get to it somehow, and this way wasn’t it.”
“Should we split up?” Young asked as she handed Elizabeth one of the rifles, keeping the other for herself.
“I don’t like that idea.” Elizabeth slung the rifle strap over her shoulder. “Rafe?”
“Neither do I. In case we have an instance of friendly crossfire.” He pocketed extra shotgun shells in the front of his tactical vest. “We don’t have NVGs and we’re not trained for this. We stay together.”
“Wish we had those things and a K9,” Lila groused.
“I’ll be sure to bring that up in the next budget meeting,” Elizabeth sniped.
“Ellie, we don’t have time for this,” Rafe admonished.
Lila rotated her ball cap backward. Young and Rafe did the same. Elizabeth decided against doing it.
Rafe took point, Lila to his right, Young and Elizabeth trailing a few feet back off to his left.
“Watch out for the multiflora rose. It’s all over out here.” With that warning, he started forward.
The path was obstructed by all manner of foliage, a lot of it snagging and tearing at their clothing. Elizabeth dreaded the thought of the slew of ticks she’d be covered in after this excursion. The damn things loved to hang out in places like this.
